Tacoma’s Hilltop Neighborhood – A Renaissance
By Tom Hume
It has been amazing to watch the transformation of downtown Tacoma and neighboring Hilltop, so named because it is perched on a bluff overlooking downtown, Commencement Bay and Mt. Rainier. I remember seeing Hilltop on the show “Cops” in Tacoma at a time when there was a proliferation of gang activity and crime.
A lot has changed. Wikipedia has this to say: “Since the mid-1990s, neighborhood watch efforts, increased police presence, commercial real estate development efforts along Martin Luther King Way, and rising real estate values in all areas adjoining downtown Tacoma have served to lower the amount of crime in Hilltop”. What has happened is a renaissance of that area. There are new restaurants and businesses, a light rail line with expansion plans and museums. The University of Washington Tacoma campus has been expanding since its inception.
Hilltop is uniquely positioned to see growth in property values, due to its proximity to all that is going on with UW Tacoma and development downtown. Development and activity breeds a need for housing. Regarding real estate value appreciation in Hilltop, the median price (updated 9/30/2016) is up 13% year over year.
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